Ghislaine Maxwell has reportedly been placed on suicide watch ahead of her sentencing after she was found guilty of serious sex trafficking crimes in a New York federal court last week. Maxwell, the longtime companion of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein could face up to 65 years in prison if given the maximum sentence, and authorities are said to be worried she might attempt to take her own life before her sentence is handed down, Metro reports.
- This isn’t the first time Maxwell will be on suicide watch. The Bureau of Prisons placed her on watch a week after her arrest in July 2020. Since then, she’s been held at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
- She’s been in solitary confinement much of the time. Because she’s considered a high-profile and high-risk prisoner, prison consultant Justin Paperny says she’s been in solitary confinement for more than a year, which can be difficult for anyone.
- Moving to a new prison will be an improvement. Once Maxwell is sentenced, she will be transferred to a prison meant for those serving long sentences. Papery believes that she will be much better off when that happens. “Her case is different because she’s already endured so much time in custody. She’s been in this wretched, dank, cold, filthy detention center in Brooklyn which has really conditioned her for confinement,” he told The Times. “People are surprised to hear that once she is sentenced and makes her way to the federal correctional institution, she will actually feel like she’s in Disneyland compared to where she is now.”
- A date for sentencing hasn’t been set. However, many are keen to see Maxwell handed the maximum sentence. As Prosecutor Alison Moe said in her closing arguments: “Epstein could not have done this alone,” Moe said. When that man is accompanied by a posh, smiling, respectable, age-appropriate woman, that’s when everything starts to seem legitimate. And when that woman… acts like it’s totally normal for that man to touch those girls, it lures them into a trap.”
